Funds are requested to enable scientists to participate in the Gordon Research Conference on Mammalian DNA Repair, to he held in Ventura, California, January 19-24, 2003. The purpose of the conference is to convene an international group of cutting-edge researchers and experts to present new findings, and to discuss and debate the most important recent developments and unanswered questions in this field. The conference will serve as a catalyst to forge new research endeavors and collaborations. The 2003 conference chair will be Dr. Richard D. Wood and the vice-chair will be Dr. Errol Friedberg. The intensive five-day meeting will begin with keynote presentations on the first Sunday evening, followed by eight sessions to be held in the mornings and evenings of the next four days with 3 or 4 speakers in each session plus a Discussion Leader. Sessions will not be held in the afternoon, to allow time for discussions between participants. Poster attendees will be available to discuss their posters during the late afternoons. All participants will be encouraged to present posters. Sessions topics include: Regulation and signaling in DNA repair, Control of access to chromatin, Encounters of DNA and RNA polymerases with damage and unusual DNA structures, Processing of DNA damage, Repair of inter-strand DNA cross-links, and Recombination and double-strand break repair. Several of these topics are new sessions for the Mammalian DNA Repair conference. In addition, late-breaking developments derived from posters will be presented as "Discussion Points". A total of 135 participants can be admitted, and special attention will be paid to assembling a mix of individuals comprising established leaders in the DNA damage response field, promising young investigators, and individuals from related areas. Many leaders are women and will be well represented on the program. An attempt will be made to attract qualified, minority scientists to the Conference. Primary consideration for admittance will be given to those individuals who are expected to contribute actively to discussion and presentation of unpublished results. [unreadable] [unreadable] [unreadable]